In computer networking, network administrators are often concerned with how to best route traffic flows from one end point to another end point across a network. Routers may be used in an autonomous system (AS) to determine a node to which network traffic propagating through the autonomous system should be forwarded. Routers communicate with other routers within the autonomous system to determine the best paths through the autonomous system to reach a destination address. Various protocols may be used including Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), which is used for routing between autonomous systems, and Internal Border Gateway Protocol (iBGP), which is used for routing between routers in the same autonomous system to external destinations. An Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) is used for routing inside an autonomous system to internal destinations.
In hot potato routing, packets are not stored (or buffered), but are constantly transferred in an attempt to move the packets to their final destination. Hot potato routing attempts to direct traffic to the closest autonomous system (AS) egress points within a given BGP network. An egress point is an exit point (e.g., a point of presence (POP) or an edge router) of the autonomous system that may be used to reach an external destination node. In a BGP route reflector deployment, the choice of an exit point for a route reflector and its clients will be the egress point closest to the route reflector and not necessarily its clients. Thus, the ability to implement hot potato routing in a BGP route reflection deployment can present significant challenges to network administrators.